Car was getting “slower and slower” – Alonso

A loss of power during qualifying harmed Fernando Alonso’s run, according to the Ferrari driver.

Alonso was last of the ten drivers in Q3 and will start ninth following Daniel Ricciardo’s penalty.

“Yeah it was not a clean qualifying unfortunately,” Alonso told reporters in Bahrain.

“I was losing power through the qualifying, every lap that we went out it seems the car to be slower and slower on the straight so we need to check if it was something damaged or something that we could do for tomorrow better.

“Maybe in the car, the floor of the car or whatever, or there was something in the electric motor or whatever that was not perfectly combined. But it is true that doing 34.5 in Q2, now in Q3 with better track conditions, with less fuel, to do a 34.9 is not that the ideal when it counts.

“But it is the way it is and tomorrow, starting from the clean side, ninth, we still can do a good race and we need a good start and a good strategy.”

Alonso expects an “open” race tomorrow and said Ferrari will pursure an “aggressive” strategy to move up the order.

“We have not much to lose,” he said. “We are ninth, nearly out of the points, so we must improve that position and we need to recover. We’ll see what we can do.”

“There are people coming from behind that will come very strong like Vettel, like Hulkenberg so it is not easy. We need to look at many cars around us and hopefully beat them.”

Fernando Alonso is very high motivation race driver. Never a waste in all his f1 career. Its just that ferrari not having a wining car again this year. I respect him a lot even with slower car he always manage to finish top 10, all in points, especially when he is in not winning car renault 08-09. He always push to the limit. If he was in RB since 2010, i think he already have 6 WC, even can go untill 10 WC if in the right winning car.

A waste of what? I don’t understand why no more championships for Alonso would mean a wasted career.

Sure it would certainly add to his achievements but if he were to retire from Formula 1 tomorrow, he’d have 32 wins, 95 podiums and 2 world championships and was only a handful of points away from 3 more. Not to mention he’s won races for Renault, McLaren and Ferrari. 3 of the most prestigious teams in the sport. I don’t know about you but that is a very solid Formula 1 career right there that many drivers could only dream of.

Im giving him a compliment just like 1x WC is a waste for Ham talent you cant deny its a waste for Alonso he as not won since 06. He as never won a WC with Ham and Vet on the grid. You surely agree with me Alo is a great yet he should be better. And he is not getting any younger Dave comment is hilarious yeh 18 races left and what Ferrari are not even quicker than Redbull lol.

It’s difficult to call it a waste when you consider who he has been racing against.

Vettel has been terrific these past 4 years. Of course, there’s room for debate about who deserved it more in 2010/12, but the point is that, as great as Alonso is, he hasn’t been that drastically better than Vettel to define it as a waste.

I’m not saying he doesn’t deserve another championship, I’m saying he doesn’t deserve it enough for it to be a waste if he doesn’t earn it.

Mark of a great champion, thats what it is. In any sport,more so in F1, those with the mentality of winning ingrained in them will never give up. The day they give up, is probably the day that they should stop.

The way things are going, I wont be surprised if Fernando doesnt win another WDC.

If it is something they can fix I am sure they will, more than enough time. 24hours. I mean they changed the steering column last week in minutes, those boys can fix things very quickly. Well except speed related issues.

“Maybe in the car, the floor of the car or whatever, or there was something in the electric motor or whatever that was not perfectly combined.

Sure, Fernando.

Off course it could also have been that he didn’t get enough heat in the tyres as the temperatures went down. That was something mentioned during FP3 that teams who did great on saving their tyres last year might struggle if they still do the same now with the harder tyres.

I think ferrari are starting to realise that alonso talks a better game than he performs
if something is wrong with the car they are allowed to fix it …pretty clear therefor that there is nothing wrong

Funny how when Vettel complained about downshifts in his Red Bull keeping him out of Q3, everyone seemed to believe it. But when Fernando says he didn’t get enough power from the car, all of a sudden he is making excuses